Ariel Publicity

Under the guidance of platinum-selling producer Steven Haigler (Brand New, Fuel, Oleander, Pixies, As Tall as Lions), Last November’s new album, Over the Top or Under the Weather, delivers on the promise of the group’s impressive 2006 debut album, All the Gory Details, which was featured on The Real World, and other MTV shows, as well as garnering multi-formatted airplay on over 200 radio stations.

When we were in high school we used to sit around with acoustic guitars singing songs from Brand New’s, Deja Entendu, remembers Last November’s vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Luke Pilgrim. Working with the man who produced that record was a pretty surreal experience for us.

Luke Pilgrim, who began performing when he was 11, wrote most of the songs for the first album when he was still 15, and produced that disc himself. Now with a few more years under his belt, he brings an added maturity and experience to his writing. On Over the Top or Under the Weather, Steven Haigler’s sparkling production concentrates the band’s highly melodic vocals within edgy guitar inventions like The Bumper Sticker Song,the album’s first single and video.

The Bumper Sticker Song is really about finding someone who can love you in spite of all your flaws, weird hang ups, disorders, and overall neurotic, obsessive nature, says Pilgrim. I actually get emails from people asking if I really have A.D.D and O.C.D. I usually just tell them those are only a couple of my many disorders.

On the new CD, rockers like the wry Jesus Had Breakfast in Bed and Butter Me Up, with its Leslie-fied touches, demonstrate an astounding growth for Last November, while the superb Sunday Afternoon creates a lush landscape of baroque pop that is both hauntingly catchy and intelligent. Besides Luke Pilgrim on lead vocals and guitar, the band includes Tyler Ayers on bass; Zach Baxter on guitar, keyboards and vocals; and Taylor Woodruff on drums and vocals.

Over the Top or Under the Weather is Last November's second release on Southern Tracks Records, the independent label founded by legendary music publisher Bill Lowery. It was recorded and mixed at the renowned Southern Tracks Studio in Atlanta, home to such artists as Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Train, The Bravery, and Bruce Springsteen, and mastered by Rodney Mills (Butch Walker, Pearl Jam, Drive-By Truckers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc.).